Friday, 24 June 2016

So there we have it, The United Kingdom will leave the European Union. I was a little surprised when I heard the result this morning, as I really believes that although the result would be close that Remain would clinch it.

Eventhough it wasn't the result I wanted, I'm not submitting to shoddy scaremongering some Remainers are peddling (at least not yet). Western civilisation won't collapse as a result of the UK leaving the EU and The Third World War will not ignite. There undoubtedly will be political and economic turbulence now that David Cameron will resign as Prime Minister and the pound has hit a 30 year low. However, the UK won't be facing the apocalypse anytime soon.

Despite my disagreement with their position, I empathise with why many of my fellow citizens would wish to be rid of the European Union. Its lack of democracy and accountability, its inefficiency, its inability to provide a coherent response to crises and the broader resentment over discussions on immigration.

What disappointed me about the campaign was how these underlying issues behind the hostility towards the EU were barely addressed. The Remain campaign, recognizing that it little to say on these issues without embarrassing itself, has largely avoided these issues, focusing its energy almost entirely on
economic arguments. Leave campaigners have been equally
opportunistic in the way they have addressed questions of democracy and
immigration by manipulating them to obscure the issues and play into nostalgic, pseudo-emancipatory, nationalist rhetoric.

Moreover, for all the economic and cultural beneftis of the European Union, whenever a the EU has faced a major crisis like the Eurozone crisis and the migrant crisis. It has handled it badly by failing to have a coherent response and the 'response' has usually made the situation worse not better. And because it lacks the democratic mandate and a proper sense of democratic legitimacy for such decisions, it can't deal with these crises properly.

With all this to consider, I understand why many people voted to leave and be rid of the EU. Simply generalizing them as deluded little Englanders or knuckle dragging racists will get us nowhere and will not solve the issues, instead it will make the political climate more toxic than it already is.

While the EU is a fundamentally undemocratic institution, leaving the EU
would not, in itself, bridge the democratic deficit. There exists today
a much more profound disenchantment with mainstream political
institutions, on a national, as well as
at a European level, which has led to an upsurge
in support for ultra-nationalist and populist parties throughout Europe.

The Brexit result may restore a greater degree of sovereignty, but it will not
address the deeper anger at the political establishment and even at the idea of politics. In conflating resentment about lack of
democracy with restraints on national sovereignty, Leave campaigners
obscure the real problems. The dangers of such conflation can be seen
most clearly in the debate about immigration. Leave campaigners argue
that outside the EU, Britain would have control of its borders, and so
be able to ease people’s fear about immigrantion. As Boris Johnson suggested, "You can only spike the
guns of the extremists and the people who are genuinely
anti-immigrant"..."if you take back control."

Boris is simply wrong. Britain has been unable to reduce the flow of immigration in areas where it has complete control. Migration to Britain from outside the EU was higher last year
than EU migration. EU net
migration currently stands at 184,000 compared to 188,000 from outside
the EU.

The Tory government made it a promise in their 2010 election manifesto to reduce migration to the ‘tens of thousands’,
and being unable to limit EU migrants, they strived
particularly hard to reduce non-EU migration numbers, including adopting the ‘points-based system’ favoured by critics of high immigration. Its
continued failure to reduce numbers is telling, showing that unless the
government wishes to weaken the British economy, its ability to control migration is limited. Promising to limit immigration and failing to do so will, only exacerbate people's resentment and contempt including increase
hostility to immigration.

While immigration may be the most potent symbol, to some, of an increasingly globalised world out of control, and of ordinary people having little say in the policies that affect their lives, it is not the reason for the grievances and hardships many people experience.

Britain has experienced a series of economic and social changes over the past few decades which have decimated working class communities such as the decline of manufacturing industry, the
crumbling of the welfare state, the coming of austerity, the growth of inequality -combined
with political shifts, such as the erosion of trade union power and the
transformation of social democratic parties, to create a sense of rage among sections of the electorate.

Immigration and open borders has played almost no role in fostering these specific changes. However, it is the lens through which many perceive these
changes and is among the top issues that concerns voters when polled, largely because of the way that immigration has been
framed by politicians of all shades over the past half century.

At the same time, politicians nowadays often express a certain kind of Liberal disdain for the
masses whom many regard as provincial, racist, and incapable of adopting a
rational view of immigration. Former Prime Minister, Gordon
Brown’s description during the 2010 election campaign of pensioner
Gillian Duffy as ‘a bigoted woman’
because of her worries about European migrants from Eastern European captured the
contempt of elite politicians for the little people’s immigration
concerns. This toxic mix of fear and contempt has
helped both to stigmatize migrants and to create popular hostility
towards the liberal elite for ignoring peoples concerns on immigration policy.

Certainly, the Leave camp have promoted obnoxious arguments about immigration throughout the campaign, from Michael Gove’s warnings about marauding Turks to Nigel Farage’s absurd ‘Breaking Point’ poster.
But supporters of the EU also bare some responsibility creating
an anti-immigration climate. For instance, Prime Minister David Cameron who led a campaign against ‘benefit tourists’, despite the government’s own Migration Advisory Committee insisting that there is "little evidence to support the so-called welfare magnet hypothesis as a migration driver across EU countries".

Leave supporters, have not addressed issues
of democracy and immigration, but exploited them in an opportunistic, and
often in reactionary fashion. In simplifying the problem of democracy to the
bureaucratic structures of the EU, they have ignored the shifts
in politics and the economy that have left large sections of the
electorate (mainly working class people) feeling politically voiceless, and which will not be
addressed simply by leaving the EU. In having this narrow, primitive and divisive notion of democracy and promoting strict border controls as the key expression of national
sovereignty, they have utterly obscured the problem. Unfortunately, for the working class people who voted for Leave they have swapped one useless and distant elite for another one who will fare no better at addressing their concerns and worries.

Now that the result is Britain will officially leave the European Union, I believe it is unlikely that the popular disaffection with mainstream political institutions, or the sense of being politically
voiceless among large sections of voters, is likely to be eased anytime soon. And it will not be eased until we directly address the reasons for their anger and disaffection.

Sunday, 5 June 2016

The Young Turks do it once again! They demonstrate their lack of cross referencing and very simple fact checking leading to an embarrassing situation for an online media outlet that has an alleged intrest in journalistic intergrity and "giving viewers the facts".

They commit a big mistake in their video title and description. They say in the title "Will Britain exit the Euro (Eurozone)". That is not the question being asked for British citizens at the referendum, the question being asked is should Britain leave the European Union not the single currency of which it it not a part of.

For those of that don't know, the European Union is a political and economic union of 28
member states that have agreed on certain things like a common market, common regulation, relaxed border controls, free trade, agriculture policy etc.

The Eurozone is a currency union (of which Britain is not a part of) of 17
European Union member states that have adopted the Euro as
their common currency and sole legal tender. Monetary policy of the zone
is the responsibility of the European Central Bank (ECB) which is
governed by a president and a board of the heads of national central
banks.

In all seriousness, if they made this atrocious mistake at a professional media outlet they would be suspended and not even be considered serious by anybody. This is something a very simple google search would rectify. It is stuff like this that demonstrates why The Young Turks should not be taken seriously as a media outlet especially by younger generations who are their target audience because this can easily lead to misinformation, confusion and even ignorance of the politics of foreign nation.

The irony of this is in their video they implicitly condemn ignorant Americans who don't care to know or care about European politics, yet in a way they are reflecting this carelessness and ignorance through their mistake which they still have not corrected a day after the video was released.

This is not the first time something like this has happened, nor will it be the last.